Radicalizing Rohingyas

[Valin]

Via Meadia:

Jan. 19 2017

 

The Rohingyas, a long-suffering Muslim minority in Myanmar, have lately become the cause célèbre of the international human rights community as they face a brutal crackdown by Myanmar’s military. But ever since a series of border attacks in October, many Rohingyas are now turning to internationally funded Islamist insurgents to resist the government. The New York Times

 

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The Times story draws on an analytical report from the International Crisis Group, one of the few NGOs that has done the serious reporting necessary to convey the complexities of the conflict to a Western audience. Unfortunately, most other human rights groups have oversimplified the situation, casting the Rohingyas as the noble victims of a brutal military and a callous Prime Minister, the once-beloved Aung San Suu Kyi. As Walter Russell Mead argued last month, such uninformed pleas serve little purpose beside moralistic signaling, failing to illuminate the harsh political realities on the ground.

 

This is not to minimize the Rohingyas’ plight. They have undeniably suffered from religious discrimination, exclusionary citizenship laws, and now, an indiscriminate army campaign that has included the burning of villages and systematic rape. But troubling developments within the Rohingya population cannot be overlooked. As the ICG report makes clear, the rise of insurgent groups would be unthinkable without a growing acceptance of their tactics among the Rohingya population, who had largely foresworn violence in the past. And the specter of international terrorist groups joining the fight bodes ill for any peaceful resolution.

 

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